A CORONA DIARY - A STORY SO FAR........
I have never kept a diary in my life. But beginning in March this year I decided to change that and create a visual diary that had just a few parameters. Firstly to keep it simple. One very old camera, one very old 35mm lens and whatever BW film was lying around the house. The choice to use film was not just an aesthetic one, but also one that allowed me time to think. Each frame of a 36 exposure roll had to count. The home processing in the shed and negative digital dupe scanning filled out my time by giving me something else to do. Any frailties in my technical abilities as a photographer were ruthlessly exposed and simultaneously embraced.
Witnessing the combined effect of this virus and this lockdown on my parents, siblings, wife and children and chronicling it as honestly as possible was my only aim. It is not meant to be a beautiful set of images laid out in linear fashion, but instead a raw, rough around the edges scrapbook of how one family handled a global situation within the microcosm of their own home. How it changed us. What we learned about each other. How we grew as a family.
Physical health, mental health, educational disruption, financial uncertainty, furlough schemes, mealtimes, family walks, arguments, zoom calls, worship, haircuts, letters from Prime Ministers, Queen's speeches, clapping for carers, VE Day, birthdays, super moons, comets and astronaut landings and more are all laid bare. The constant scrutiny under which my family have willingly subjected themselves to is the only reason these images exist. As a body of work it is solely created as an historical document of a momentous time to hopefully pass down through the generations of family to follow.